The Supreme Court has just ruled that the term “woman” refers to those born as biologically female.
The landmark moment has delivered a blow to the trans community and comes after years of campaigning from gender-critical groups.
Here’s a look at how we got here, and just what that means.
What just happened?
The UK Supreme Court, operated by the five most senior judges in the country, has officially defined what a woman is.
Lord Reed, Lady Rose, Lord Lloyd-Jones, Lady Simler and Lord Hodge have all ruled sex is defined by biology.
It comes after gender-critical campaigners escalated a case looking at Scottish legislation about how to define gender.
Judges were looking at this question: “Is a person with a full GRC [gender recognition certificate] which recognises that their gender is female, a ‘woman’ for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010?”
Lord Hodge announced today: “The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.”
Essentially that means defining someone based on their reproductive organs and chromosomes rather than their gender identity and any gender-recognition process.
It has defined sex as binary.
Why was this issue even in the courts?
It comes after campaign groups of gender-critical women, For Women Scotland and Sex Matters, brought a case against the Scottish government to the Supreme Court.
They were fighting against legislation led by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon in 2018 which aimed to set up gender quotas for public boards.
This law recognised trans women with gender recognition certificates (GRC) as women.
But the campaigners claim sex is biological and binary.
They said the legislation had broken with the separate definition of women and trans women as explained in the 2010 Equality Act.
They claimed that sex based protections should only be offered to those who were born biologically female – and therefore not include those with a GRC.
So they began contesting the legislation in 2021 with a judicial review.
The Scottish government argued its legislation was in line with the definition of women in the Equality Act and trans women as defined by the 2004 Gender Recognition Act.
The 2004 legislation states: “Where a full gender recognition certificate has been issued to a person that their acquired gender is female, the person’s sex is that of a woman.”
The Scottish courts already ruled twice in the Scottish government’s favour, saying sex is “not limited to biological or birth sex” – including those with GRC.
So the group escalated it to the Supreme Court – meaning the ruling will now impact the whole of Britain.
How did the judges come to this decision?
Hodge said the predecessors to the Equality Act used definitions of biological sex and gender reassignment was added as a separate characteristic.
He said: “Although the word ‘biological’ does not appear in this definition, the ordinary meaning of those plain and unambiguous words corresponds with the biological characteristics that make an individual a man or a woman.
“These are assumed to be self-explanatory and to require no further explanation.
“Men and women are on the face of the definition only differentiated as a grouping by the biology they share with their group.”
Hodge also noted if people with Gender Reassignment Certificates were included in the sex group, it would make the Equality Act read in an “incoherent way”.
He said any issues linked to pregnancy and maternity can be read as referring to biological sex, but other parts of the Act referred to “certified sex”.
However, he said this ruling should not be seen as a victory for either side of the argument, and claimed trans people are still protected in the law.
What does this mean for the trans community?
Lord Hodge said the marginalised group are still protected through the Equality Act 2010 against discrimination – indirect and direct – as well as harassment.
But trans rights campaigners fear this means they will lose protections and that public bodies and organisations will change how they operate in regard to single-sex spaces.
Statista found the number of police recorded hate crimes against trans people has been rising in recent years. In 2023/24, there were 4,780 recorded incidents.
Trans women with GRCs may not be able to access women’s single-sex services.
The Good Law Project also claimed the court did not hear from a single trans person.
The campaigners added: “This ruling sets a dangerous precedent and erases trans women from protections. It puts trans rights back 20 years.”
Scottish Trans told the public “not to panic” as it was working to “properly understand what the court has decided today”.
Writing on BlueSky, it said: “There will be lots of commentary coming out quickly that is likely to deliberately overstate the impact that this decision is going to have on all trans people’s lives. We’ll say more as soon as we’re able to. Please look out for yourselves and each other today.”
Other LGBTQ+ advocacy groups such as TransActual echoed this sentiment.
What does it mean for British society as a whole?
The question over socialised gender and biological sex has been a culture war touchpoint for years now, leading to spike in abuse against the trans community.
Because the issue was escalated to the most senior court in the UK, the ruling will now impact the way the whole of Britain perceives sex and gender.
The outcome of the justices’ decision will hit the interpretation of the Gordon Brown-era 2010 Equality Act.
It will affect how single-sex services work, how future equalities or gender policies are written.
And, despite the judges’ warning not to see this as a victory, it is already being celebrated by the gender-critics.
Tory Party leader Kemi Badenoch praised the decision, saying: “Saying ‘trans women are women’ was never true in fact, and now isn’t true in law either.
“This is a victory for all of the women who faced personal abuse or lost their jobs for stating the obvious. Women are women and men are men: you cannot change your biological sex.
“The era of Keir Starmer telling us women can have penises has come to an end. Well done to For Women Scotland!”
HENRY NICHOLLS via AFP via Getty Images
Help and support:
- The Gender Trust supports anyone affected by gender identity | 01527 894 838
- Mermaids offers information, support, friendship and shared experiences for young people with gender identity issues | 0208 1234819
- LGBT Youth Scotland is the largest youth and community-based organisation for LGBT people in Scotland. Text 07786 202 370
- Gires provides information for trans people, their families and professionals who care for them | 01372 801554
- Depend provides support, advice and information for anyone who knows, or is related to, a transsexual person in the UK
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